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Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

newyorker.com

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Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#21

Post by JoeAltmaier »

joezydeco wrote: post #16
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

I've been predicting robotic fast food for a decade now. And it's here! By cooking with no human hand ever coming into contact with the ingredients or utensils, clearly a health benefit is accrued. And by steam-cleaning the cooker periodically, quality is improved. I'd envisioned a somewhat different robot. I thought the ingredients could be tube-delivered like caulking guns, on a rotating 'tool carousel' so you coul…

If you think labor is what keeps fast food prices high, you are mistaken. Most of the largest chains have pretty much automated nearly everything by now that's possible given reliability and safety standards. If you look in the kitchen of any McDonald's nobody is cooking or preparing the components. They're either pre-cut, loaded into dispensers, being cooked in a self-timing temperature-controlled fryer, or being co…

Read the article! Its all about automating assembly and delivery.

Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#23

Post by JoeAltmaier »

joezydeco wrote: post #16
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

I've been predicting robotic fast food for a decade now. And it's here! By cooking with no human hand ever coming into contact with the ingredients or utensils, clearly a health benefit is accrued. And by steam-cleaning the cooker periodically, quality is improved. I'd envisioned a somewhat different robot. I thought the ingredients could be tube-delivered like caulking guns, on a rotating 'tool carousel' so you coul…

If you think labor is what keeps fast food prices high, you are mistaken. Most of the largest chains have pretty much automated nearly everything by now that's possible given reliability and safety standards. If you look in the kitchen of any McDonald's nobody is cooking or preparing the components. They're either pre-cut, loaded into dispensers, being cooked in a self-timing temperature-controlled fryer, or being co…

25% to 40% I see by labor statistics. That's quite a margin.

Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#24

Post by crankylinuxuser »

joezydeco wrote: post #16
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

I've been predicting robotic fast food for a decade now. And it's here! By cooking with no human hand ever coming into contact with the ingredients or utensils, clearly a health benefit is accrued. And by steam-cleaning the cooker periodically, quality is improved. I'd envisioned a somewhat different robot. I thought the ingredients could be tube-delivered like caulking guns, on a rotating 'tool carousel' so you coul…

If you think labor is what keeps fast food prices high, you are mistaken. Most of the largest chains have pretty much automated nearly everything by now that's possible given reliability and safety standards. If you look in the kitchen of any McDonald's nobody is cooking or preparing the components. They're either pre-cut, loaded into dispensers, being cooked in a self-timing temperature-controlled fryer, or being co…

In other words, humans are just disposable, self-healing robots that require minimal maintenance. And when they can no longer do the job, Right-to-Work laws summarily get rid of them.

Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#25

Post by bhouston »

People seem to forget that nearly all frozen meals and frozen pizzas are all robotic made by the many millions per day. Just by very expensive, large and high speed robots.

The innovation is now trying to make robots that are more flexible, smaller and low volume food production while not being super expensive.

Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#26

Post by gnode »

sorenn111 wrote: post #6

I'm surprised Moley ( http://www.moley.com/ ) didn't get a mention. I'm super excited about robotic food preparation, especially in the case of consumer facing robotics where its a unit in your own kitchen. With that said, from the robotics progress I've seen/studied, more fundamental robotics progress needs to be made first. The approaches used right now are just not durable/reliable enough for mass market adoption.…

This seems convoluted to me. Like using an android to operate a manual spinning wheel, instead of an automated spinning machine.

Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#27

Post by cgriswald »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #2

I've been predicting robotic fast food for a decade now. And it's here! By cooking with no human hand ever coming into contact with the ingredients or utensils, clearly a health benefit is accrued. And by steam-cleaning the cooker periodically, quality is improved. I'd envisioned a somewhat different robot. I thought the ingredients could be tube-delivered like caulking guns, on a rotating 'tool carousel' so you coul…

Any price change will not be radical. Wages account for about 25% of the cost of fast food, but these robots are not free and any savings will result in price drops only if the price change also increases profits. Instead, more money may be spent on better ingredients or marketing. Do not expect a 25% price drop.

With regard to health and safety, the robots will provide only small benefit. Humans are better equipped (i.e., we have noses) to detect bad food; and in any case humans will still be involved in the handling, storage, and transportation of ingredients. Although disgusting, cases where the cook doesn't clean the grill properly and people get sick are much rarer than cases where the ingredients are already bad.

I suspect the main benefit of these robots to a fast food chain would be consistency in product and preparation times.

Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#28

Post by knieveltech »

pbalau wrote: post #18
tantalor wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no human hand... clearly a health benefit That is a non sequitur. The most dangerous illness associated with fast food (poor nutrition aside) such as E. coli[1] and Hep A[2] are most readily attributed to ingredient suppliers, not improper food handling. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2015/o26-11-15/index.html [2] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm

True, but with a full automatic system to convert those ingredients to food, you could add a test step, where you filter out the contaminated ingredients.

I feel like waiting for the labs to come back on e coli and salmonella tests might inversely impact wait times.

Re: Spyce Kitchen, a robotic chef built by four recent M.I.T. grads

#29

Post by michaelmcmillan »

sorenn111 wrote: post #6

I'm surprised Moley ( http://www.moley.com/ ) didn't get a mention. I'm super excited about robotic food preparation, especially in the case of consumer facing robotics where its a unit in your own kitchen. With that said, from the robotics progress I've seen/studied, more fundamental robotics progress needs to be made first. The approaches used right now are just not durable/reliable enough for mass market adoption.…

Just throwing out some armchair criticism: I would think that a robotic chef would look a little less intuitive. I mean, is two monkey arms really the optimal strategy for revolutionizing this field? Happy to be proven wrong!
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